Drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a formidable challenge for therapies targeting the central nervous system. Although BBB shuttle peptides enhance transport into the brain non-invasively, their application is partly limited by lability to proteases. The present study proposes the use of cyclic peptides derived from venoms as an affordable way to circumvent this drawback. Apamin, a neurotoxin from bee venom, was minimized by reducing its complexity, toxicity, and immunogenicity, while preserving brain targeting, active transport, and protease resistance. Among the analogues designed, the monocyclic lactam-bridged peptidomimetic MiniAp-4 was the most permeable. This molecule is capable of translocating proteins and nanoparticles in a human-cell-based BBB model. Furthermore, MiniAp-4 can efficiently deliver a cargo across the BBB into the brain parenchyma of mice.
Keywords: apamin; blood-brain barrier; drug delivery; peptides.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.